Book Review: Few Are Chosen and The Wrong Stuff by MT McGuire

I met MT Maguire via our blogs, probably at least a year ago. I have long been intending to read her books but writing a book last year meant that I hardly read any, something I am rectifying somewhat this year with my goal to review 52 books this year and read a few more than that.

Few Are ChosenI planned to read ‘Few Are Chosen’ aloud to the children and yes, having finished it now, I do think it is perfect for kids aged 10+. However, it can be a little bit hard to keep track of in the opening chapters and as I was reading it in early Feb, I wasn’t getting to read it every evening as the busy calving season had kicked in plus the children wanted to read their own books to themselves. So, I put it away for a while and took it out again last week.

I loved it. It does take a little while to get really get into it but that could also be because I don’t tend to read much science fiction, hardly any in fact. Telling the story of The Pan of Hamgee, an orphan who has to use his talented driving skills to keep himself alive, ie stop apparent enemies and thugs catching up with him and either shooting him or throwing him into a fast flowing river. Of course, this isn’t happening on our Earth but at K’Barthan. There’s the evil Grongles with their leader Lord Vernon, there’s the Resistance and the ‘Underground Resistance’ too.

There’s plenty to keep you wondering and turning the pages all the way through. What exactly are the two pensioners, Gladys and Ada, up to? Is Big Merv actually becoming more likeable and can he be trusted? Who is Ruth and is she indeed the Chosen One? What about the old man – exactly whose side is he on? Will The Pan’s driving skills help him to escape from Lord Vernon? The Pan has felt useless all his ?life – does he actually have skills that others want and need? Will they enable him to stay alive? ?What about the thimbles – will their functions as portals help them get out of many sticky situations? The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger too which makes me glad that The Wrong Stuff is sitting on my bookshelf!

If your child loved Harry Potter, I’m pretty sure they will love these books. Will is reading the Anthony Horowitz series at the moment and then I’ll get him onto these – I’ll let you know what he thinks. K is devouring the Malory Towers, Naughtiest Girl in the School and St. Clare’s books by Enid Blyton at the moment so it may be a while before she’d enjoy The Chosen One plus she’s only 9. ?I do think though, all teenagers and adults would enjoy this series of books. MT Maguire is 44 and still checks in the wardrobe for Narnia. I’m 44 and was a very late adopter to Harry Potter and I really enjoyed the K’Barthan read.

This book is the first of four. I have the second and look forward to reading it. The third and fourth are being published in June.

See MT’s website for all the places you can purchase Few Are?Chosen?and read some more reviews too. It’s free on kindle at the moment too!

Update: I ended up reading The Wrong Stuff over the weekend! I couldn’t put it down. ?It really is a page turner.

The wrong stuffThe Pan and Ruth (who is the Chosen One) are now doing their best to escape from the evil Lord Vernon. The humans are now involved and believe the destruction of London to be a terrorist attack. Between the police, Lord Vernon, the creep Nigel and trying to keep track of Sir Robin Get, the couple have their work cut out to stay safe by travelling around in the snurd. Apart from the reminders of Lord Vernon’s cruelty as he attacks prisoners and ‘lesser beings’, there’s the excitement of numerous exciting car chases and the humour to lighten the mood too. Who can be trusted, that is the question!

Excellent book. I’d recommend it to a slightly older age group than the first book, probably 12+ as there is some mild sexual content. My only quibble is it ended on such a cliffhanger and there’s a couple of months till the next one is out!

By the way, both of these are self published. Hats off to the editor and proofreader as well as to the writer too 🙂 Excellent read.

4 thoughts on “Book Review: Few Are Chosen and The Wrong Stuff by MT McGuire

    • Lorna

      I will – have started the second one. Hope you didn’t mind the comparison to HP, know it is a different genre but I suppose I was thinking about the other universe in parallel with Earth, the magic, the good against evil, the orphan with extraordinary powers, loved the humour too. I see it is free on kindle at the moment – I will add that to the post.

      Reply
      • M T McGuire

        It is perma free now. I’m using the marketing strategy tried and tested by crack dealers everywhere: give away one free to get them hooked and make them pay for the others. 🙂

        Cheers

        MTM

        Reply
        • Lorna

          Good idea – apparently it works well when you have a trilogy etc. Am half way through The Wrong Stuff now and loving it. Will add an update to the blog post when I finish it 🙂

          Reply

Leave a Reply to M T McGuire Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>